Collection
When you are the one with more
This collection is about advantage, which is an awkward word and the honest one. If you know what a job pays, who to email, or how you actually got in, you are holding something that is worth a great deal to somebody who does not.
The information half is the more valuable and the more uncomfortable. Pay secrecy survives because people who could break it find it embarrassing to, and the cost of that embarrassment falls entirely on whoever has the least information in the room.
The money half is mostly about where a small amount lands. The same few pounds can be two per cent of a card fee, a pooled tip that never reaches the person who served you, or a laundry card left with credit on it for whoever comes next.
9 things you can do
In roughly the order they tend to be needed.
Pay secrecy is maintained by people like you staying quiet, and it costs whoever knows least.
Tell someone what you actually earn
Pay secrecy is maintained by people like you staying quiet, and it costs the people with least information the most.
5 minutesFreeA friend
People new to freelancing price from fear. One honest number from somebody established resets it for good.
Tell a freelancer what the going rate is
People new to freelancing price from fear. One honest number from someone established resets it permanently.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Careers look like merit from outside and like luck and contacts from inside. Saying which it was helps enormously.
Tell someone how you got in
Careers look like merit from outside and like luck and contacts from inside. Saying so out loud helps someone enormously.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Four minutes, and you have owed it for months.
Make the introduction you keep meaning to make
You know two people who should meet. The introduction takes four minutes and you have owed it for months.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Card tips are sometimes pooled, taxed through payroll, or partly kept. Cash usually reaches the person.
Tip in cash where the card tip may not reach them
Card tips are sometimes pooled, taxed through payroll or partly retained. Cash usually goes to the person.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Many of the people who help you most are barred from accepting money. Something small they can accept works instead.
Find out who is not allowed to accept tips
Many of the people who help you most are barred from taking money. Something small they can accept works instead.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Card fees take two to three per cent from a business whose whole margin may be five.
Pay the small place in cash
Card fees take two to three per cent from a business whose margin may be five. Cash is a quiet discount you can choose to give.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Small per item, decisive per year, for the place that employs people rather than a self-checkout.
Pay a bit more at the place that employs people
The difference between the independent and the chain is usually small per item and decisive per year.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
A parking meter, a laundry card. The next person gets a small piece of unearned luck.
Leave credit on the machine behind you
A parking meter, a laundry card, a photo booth. The next person gets a small unearned piece of luck.
5 minutesFreeA stranger